County profile · official public datasets

Swift County, MN

97 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 75.3% rated Good, 23.7% Fair, 1% Poor.

97
Public bridges: 75.3%
Good condition: 1%
Poor condition

The verdict

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.

Swift County pairs a top-10% lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.

Top 8%
lowest Poor share in state: 1%
Poor-condition share: 97
public highway bridges: 1993
avg year built

Poor is an FHWA condition category from the lowest applicable component rating (4 or below), not a live crossing-safety or closure decision. Rankings cover counties with at least five public highway bridges.

Swift County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Swift County ranks #7 of 87 Minnesota counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1%). Swift County, Minnesota contains 97 public highway bridges. Roughly 75.3% are rated “Good,” 23.7% “Fair,” and 1% “Poor.” Poor means the lowest applicable deck, superstructure, substructure, or culvert rating is 4 or below on the 0–9 NBI scale. It is a condition category, not a live safety or closure decision.

Responsible agencies inspect covered bridges on risk-based intervals under current NBIS rules and submit inventory data to FHWA annually. The list below shows every NBI-tracked bridge in the county. Use the “Sort by” controls to change the ordering, and click any row for its reported inspection date, traffic count, and condition fields.

Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory. See methodology for full definitions.

Total bridges

Public highway bridges in Swift County

Good condition

75.3%

73 of 97 rated 7-9

Fair condition

23.7%

23 of 97 rated 5-6

Poor condition

1 of 97 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#7 of 87

Among Minnesota counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better

Condition distribution

Share of 97 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

75.3% (73)

Fair

23.7% (23)

Poor

1% (1)

Swift County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1 crossings a day against 395 for a Good-condition one. A Poor rating is a condition category, not a closure or a live safety judgement; it means the lowest applicable component rating is 4 or below.

Computed over the 97 of 97 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

10.3% of Swift County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

10 of the 97 bridges with a recorded construction year were built in 1974 or earlier. Age alone is not a defect: a well-maintained older bridge can rate Good, and 75.3% of this county's inventory does. Even so, this older cohort is the population from which future Poor ratings are drawn, which is why the age profile below matters alongside the condition split above.

Cutoff derives from the 2024 release year minus a 50-year design life. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

One structure carries 100% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

T 312 over SHAKOPEE CREEK, built 1924, carries 1 vehicles a day, the most of any Poor-rated structure here. The county's Poor-condition exposure is concentrated rather than evenly spread, so the 1-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 1 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

2
1950s

1
1960s

3
1970s

14
1980s

19
1990s

23
2000s

14
2010s

16
2020s

5

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 23 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 23.7% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1993, 7 years newer than the Minnesota average of 1986.

How Swift County compares with Minnesota's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Minnesota counties nearest Swift County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1993 against a peer-group mean of 1987 is 6 years newer.

Showing the 5 closest of 86 Minnesota counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Swift County and the 5 Minnesota counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Sibley County	102	61.8%	37.3%	1%	1994
Beltrami County	101	63.4%	33.7%	3%	1989
Koochiching County	98	54.1%	38.8%	7.1%	1987
Swift County (this page)	97	75.3%	23.7%	1%	1993
Aitkin County	96	55.2%	36.5%	8.3%	1985
Kandiyohi County	94	48.9%	43.6%	7.4%	1980

Each share is of that county's own total tracked bridges; peers are the counties with 5 or more bridges whose inventory size is closest to Swift County's. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

Nationwide counties with similar inventory size or average build year

Two NBI-derived peer sets for Swift County, both outside Minnesota so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside MN (97 bridges here).

Forsyth County, GA · 97 bridges
Elmore County, ID · 97 bridges
Mason County, KY · 97 bridges
Madison County, MT · 97 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside MN (1993 here).

Salt Lake County, UT · avg 1993 · 659 bridges
Marshall County, MS · avg 1993 · 255 bridges
Rowan County, NC · avg 1993 · 245 bridges
Cabarrus County, NC · avg 1993 · 236 bridges

Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.

All 97 Good 73 Fair 23 Poor 1

Good-condition bridges (73)

Sort:

Swift County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Swift County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1 vehicle crossings a day

10.3% of Swift County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 100% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Swift County compares with Minnesota's closest counties by inventory size

Nationwide counties with similar inventory size or average build year

Similar inventory size

Similar average build year

Good-condition bridges (73)

CSAH 31

CSAH 25

US 12

US 12

T 157

T 46

T 78

T 88

T 61

T 171

T 11

CR 85

T 179

T 115

CR 61

T 245

MN 29

T 112

US 12

US 12

CSAH 19

CR 75

CSAH 20

CSAH 10

CSAH 7

CSAH 6

CR 51

CR 62

T 36

T 3

T 11

CR 87

T 7

CSAH 26

MN 29

CR 56

MN 9

US 12

CSAH 14

CR 75

CSAH 6

MN 29

T 99

T 99

T 66

T 205

MN 29

CSAH 22

CSAH 2

T 353

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